Using the I2 Strategy to Help Students Think Like Biologists about Natural Selection

2019 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lucci ◽  
Robert A. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Daily Experience ◽  
Intuitive Theory ◽  
Theories Of Science

Many students have very robust misconceptions about natural selection, stemming from intuitive theories that form a child's earliest understandings of the natural world. For example, students often imagine that species evolve in response to environmental pressures that cause a need for change and that all individuals in the population simultaneously respond to this need by adapting in order to survive. While children's intuitive theories are essential for comprehending many events in their daily experience, they can make learning the counterintuitive theories of science, like natural selection, challenging. To help students develop an understanding of natural selection, teachers need to guide them through an evaluation of the intuitive theory and its well-established scientific counterpart so that they see the failure of the intuitive theory to adequately explain the evidence. In other words, it is critical for the learner to confront his or her misconceptions to break them down, rather than fail to address them. This can be done by presenting students with graphical illustrations of how natural selection works and providing the tools to interpret them. Here we illustrate how to use such a tool, the Identify and Interpret (I2) strategy.

2. Evolution and natural selection

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Philosophical Significance ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he set out his theory of evolution. The book marked a turning point in our understanding of the natural world and revolutionized biology. ‘Evolution and natural selection’ outlines the theory of evolution by natural selection, explaining its unique status in biology and its philosophical significance. It considers how Darwin’s theory undermined the ‘argument from design’, a traditional philosophical argument for the existence of God; how the integration of Darwin’s theory with genetics, in the early 20th century, gave rise to neo-Darwinism; and why, despite evolutionary theory being a mainstay of modern biology, in society at large there is a marked reluctance to believe in evolution.

Natural selection and adaptation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Lewens
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Skin Pigmentation ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Relationship

Students of the natural world have long remarked on the fact that animals and plants are well suited to the demands of their environments. ‘Adaptation’, as it is used in modern biology, can name both the process by which organisms acquire this functional match, and the products of that process. Eyes, wings, beaks, camouflaging skin pigmentation and so forth, are all ‘adaptations’ in this second sense. Modern biological orthodoxy follows Darwin in giving a central role to natural selection in explaining the production of adaptations such as these. This much is uncontroversial. But a number of more contentious conceptual questions are raised when we look in more detail at the relationship between natural selection and adaptation. One of these questions concerns how we should define adaptation. It is tempting to characterize adaptations as functional traits – eyes are for seeing, large beaks are for cracking tough seed-casings. This in turn has led many commentators in biology and philosophy to define adaptations as those traits which have been shaped by natural selection for their respective tasks. Others – especially biologists – have complained that such a definition trivializes Darwin’s claim that natural selection explains adaptation. This claim was meant to be an important discovery, not a definitional consequence of the meaning of ‘adaptation’. These worries naturally lead on to the issues of how natural selection itself is to be understood, how it is meant to explain adaptation, and how it should be distinguished from other important evolutionary processes. These topics have a historical dimension: is Darwin’s understanding of natural selection, and its relationship to adaptation, the same as that of today’s evolutionary biology? Textbook presentations often say yes, and this is surely legitimate if we make the comparison in broad terms. But differences emerge when we look in more detail. Darwin, for example, seems to make the ‘struggle for existence’ an essential element of natural selection. It is not clear whether this is the case in modern presentations. And Darwin’s presentation is largely neutral on the inheritance mechanism that accounts for parent/offspring resemblance, while modern presentations sometimes insist that natural selection always implies a genetic underpinning to inheritance.

Genetic and phenotypic component in head shape of common wall lizard Podarcis muralis

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Sacchi ◽  
Marco Mangiacotti ◽  
Stefano Scali ◽  
Michele Ghitti ◽  
Beatrice Bindolini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Morphological Differentiation ◽  
Phenotypic Change ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Head Shape ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Podarcis Muralis ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Common Wall ◽  
Wide Range

Head shape in lizards correlates with a wide range of environmental pressures, supporting the hypothesis that patterns of phenotypic change represent adaptive responses to selective processes. However, natural selection promotes evolutionary adaptation only if the trait under selection has enough heritable variation. In this study we used geometric morphometrics and quantitative genetics to assess the heritability patterns of the head shape and size of common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis). Genetic and phenotypic components were estimated using animal models, which showed that more than half of the variation in head morphology is inheritable. Furthermore, at least five independent patterns of genetically determined phenotypic change were detected. These outcomes confirm that morphological differentiation in common wall lizards may reliably be regarded as the result of adaptive processes driven by natural selection.

scholarly journals Morphological differentiation across the invasive range in Senecio madagascariensis populations

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Dematteis ◽  
María S. Ferrucci ◽  
Juan P. Coulleri
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Morphological Differentiation ◽  
Dispersal Ability ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Plastic Responses ◽  
New Habitats

AbstractInvasive species are characterized by their ability to colonize new habitats and establish populations away from their native range. In this sense, these plants are expected to have plastic responses to adapt to the environmental pressures during the invasion process. Hence, the role of natural selection is essential because it might favor the occurrence of advantageous traits. However, gene flow can counteract natural selection because immigrants introduce genes adapted to different conditions, with these introductions tending to homogenize allelic frequencies. In this work, we explore the effect of natural selection in invasive populations of S. madagascariensis in Argentina. We quantified leaf area, head number, and length of internodes and inflorescence from material spanning 54 years (1962–2016) and then compared between the edge versus established ranges. Our results show differences in all the measured plant traits among the sampled areas. However, only leaf area was statistically significant, which evidences different responses under the same environmental pressures in the areas located in the edge and established ranges. On the other hand, unlike homogeneous areas, the areas characterized by phenotypically diverse individuals were related to higher dispersal ability. In this sense, long-distance dispersal between neighboring areas may have had an important role in the recorded values. Furthermore, the implications of natural selection and founder effect in the invasion of S. madagascariensis are discussed.

Mind Body Consciousness

2013 ◽  
pp. 66-80
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Body Consciousness ◽  
Richard Taylor

Humans also view themselves as not part of nature when they believe they are primarily nonphysical minds or souls or spirits, but we know that humans came to be on this planet through natural selection. Consciousness, although it is in some ways nonphysical, is still very much a part of nature. The work of two contemporary philosophers, Richard Taylor and John Rowlands, is used to explain the relation of consciousness to the natural world.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 315-336
Author(s):  
Ben Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

This book gives readers a point of access to Darwin’s writings about psychological matters. This concluding chapter reviews Darwin’s concept of agency: stressing the interrelations that result from agency; the laws that describe its long term effects (evolution by natural selection and sexual selection); and the ways it structures Darwin’s approach to the study of non-verbal expressions and other features of human sociality. I then examine the caution with which Darwin regarded what the Victorians called psychology, as represented by the works of Bain, Spencer, and Lewes—the point of difference upon which Darwin insisted being the priority he gave to observation, as opposed to definitional niceties and deduction. I show that Darwin’s prioritization of observation contrasts with the ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ which has given rise to a flight from reality in psychology, both practically—from the observable world we all know, into the laboratory—and theoretically, toward a rendition of the visible world in terms of invisible inner processes. I suggest that several current moves to reframe psychological research, and evolutionary theory, are converging on the place where Darwin’s treatment of agency has been standing for a hundred and fifty years. If pursued further today, Darwin’s approach to the study of agency would restore significance to the natural world, and the lives of its inhabitants.

Henry Walter Bates—his life and contributions to biology

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES E. O'HARA
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Geographical Society ◽  
Alfred Russel Wallace ◽  
Popular Book ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Number Of Publications

Henry Walter Bates was born in Leicester, England, on 8 February 1825. Early in life he developed a keen interest in natural history in general, and in insects in particular. He met and befriended Alfred Russel Wallace, and in 1848 the two embarked on a collecting expedition to the Amazon Valley. They soon parted company and thereafter collected separately in different areas of Amazonia. Bates returned to England 11 years later, in 1859. He was quick to embrace Darwin's and Wallace's theory of evolution by natural selection, and was one of the first to back the theory with evidence from the natural world. A case in point was Bates's theory of mimicry, which now bears his name. In 1863, his popular book The Naturalist on the River Amazons was published. Bates took the post of Assistant Secretary at the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1864 and continued in that position until his death in 1892. During that period he produced in his spare time a prodigious number of publications in systematic entomology, mostly on Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Many of his works were accompanied by insightful discussions of zoogeography, thus distinguishing Bates as one of the more remarkable and progressive systematists of his time.

The Natural Environment and Health in Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Hassell ◽  
Salome A. Bukachi ◽  
Dishon M. Muloi ◽  
Emi Takahashi ◽  
Lydia Franklinos
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Environment And Health

Much of recent human development has come at the expense of Nature - undermining ecosystems, fragmenting habitats, reducing biodiversity, and increasing our exposure and vulnerability to emerging diseases. For example, as we push deeper into tropical forests, and convert more land to agriculture and human settlements, the rate at which people encounter new pathogens that may trigger the next public health, social and economic crisis, is likely to increase. Expanding and strengthening our understanding of the links between nature and human health is especially important in Africa, where nature brings economic prosperity and wellbeing to more than a billion people. Pandemics such as COVID are just one of a growing number of health challenges that humanity is facing as a result of our one-sided and frequently destructive relationship with nature. This report aims to inform professionals and decision-makers on how health outcomes emerge from human interactions with the natural world and identify how efforts to preserve the natural environment and sustainably manage natural resources could have an impact on human and animal health. While the report focuses on the African continent, it will also be of relevance to other areas of the world facing similar environmental pressures.

Using Spreadsheets to Simulate an Evolving Population

2017 ◽  
Vol 79 (8) ◽  
pp. 635-643
Author(s):  
Ryan E. Langendorf ◽  
Paul K. Strode
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Biology Teachers ◽  
Arbitrary Degree ◽  
Google Docs ◽  
Living World ◽  
The World

Biology teachers inevitably struggle with how best to teach evolution. Students arrive in their classrooms with preconceptions, many of which are overwhelmingly skeptical, and science teachers are increasingly being pressured to adhere to an arbitrary degree of objectivity that makes discussing scientific worldviews challenging. These challenges have resulted in evolution being taught largely as a series of explanations for questions arising from observations of the living world. In so doing, students may not have a chance to grapple with the worldview that produced those explanations, or develop a more mechanistic intuition for inheritance and change in the world they see around themselves. Here we put forth all the tools necessary for a class to build a simulation of an evolving population experiencing natural selection from scratch in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Not only will this activity help students experiment with the natural world more mechanistically, but it will also allow them to learn as actual evolutionary biologists do.

scholarly journals How self-organization can guide evolution

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 160553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Glancy ◽  
James V. Stone ◽  
Stuart P. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Thermal Conductance ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Model System ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Cold Environments ◽  
Genetic Components ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Fundamental Forces ◽  
Selection Of

Self-organization and natural selection are fundamental forces that shape the natural world. Substantial progress in understanding how these forces interact has been made through the study of abstract models. Further progress may be made by identifying a model system in which the interaction between self-organization and selection can be investigated empirically. To this end, we investigate how the self-organizing thermoregulatory huddling behaviours displayed by many species of mammals might influence natural selection of the genetic components of metabolism. By applying a simple evolutionary algorithm to a well-established model of the interactions between environmental, morphological, physiological and behavioural components of thermoregulation, we arrive at a clear, but counterintuitive, prediction: rodents that are able to huddle together in cold environments should evolve a lower thermal conductance at a faster rate than animals reared in isolation. The model therefore explains how evolution can be accelerated as a consequence of relaxed selection , and it predicts how the effect may be exaggerated by an increase in the litter size, i.e. by an increase in the capacity to use huddling behaviours for thermoregulation. Confirmation of these predictions in future experiments with rodents would constitute strong evidence of a mechanism by which self-organization can guide natural selection.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document